Noah's Flood

Well It is great to hear from all of you again! I am happy for the Cannons! I had been just wondering earlier this week if Diane had had the baby yet! Well that is exciting and the pictures are good! Thanks for the info dad on the Priesthood, I hadn't really found to much of a direct answer yet. I had come to the same sort of conclusion only it was a bit more vague and not fully formed yet. Mom I do have a copy of the conference issue of the ensign, the missionaries get the ensign monthly so that is good, but thanks for thinking of me! I am enjoying go through the talks again, it was a very good conference. I would like you to send me a copy of ugh..I am not even sure what to call it, my priesthood lineage? Like that I got the priesthood from my father, who got it from so and so who got it from so and so, etc. Does that make sense or am I just making things confusing? Well either way I would like that! What address do you send things to? I think the P.O. box works the best but they are all good.
Well for the random things this week, I get a preparation day!!! I haven't had one in 3 weeks, just email time. I hope that I get around to getting some pictures printed and I can fix my bike! The list of problems is growing rapidly so I will have to withdraw some money today to get it all fixed up and ready to ride everyday in safety again. The Deck looks nice dad! Looks like it will be quite large! School is more or less over for you all so enjoy the summer vacation! I don't know when school gets out here. Good to know that the virus is gone! Sounds like it was a pain in the neck to get rid of. Mom you did successfully shrink the photos down, thanks that works much better I like it!
So my new companion is an Elder Hillam. He is really good! But first for my crazy week. So after I emailed last week I went to Mo-bay and worked with E.Nelson, a native Jamaican, till Wednesday. It was a lot of fun. Very different being in the city and not in the rural lands. Everything is so close and dirty and smelly in the city but it was good. I enjoyed my week. I slept at the zone leaders house and saved a lot of money/time, had no travel time and I just lived off of the Zone Leaders food so I didn't have to buy my own! Then on Thursday I got up early and went to Sav and worked with E. Sizemore all day. It was a lot of fun! We rode our bikes for about 45 minutes to his area and then it began to rain! and it rained and rained and rained and rained, for 4 hours it rained in the hardest rainstorm I have ever seen. We were soaked and my daily planner was completely destroyed. The streets had about 1.5 feet of water in them that we were trudging through. My feet were completely submerged in the water everytime I would petal downward. It was crazy! I have never seen so much water in the streets, it was like a giant flood. Something random about the culture, Jamaicans hate the rain, they won't go out in it. If it rains they won't go to school, or work, or church or anything, rain=sit at home and do nothing till it stops. It is a really dumb trait of the culture, probably the most annoying, I love the people here and the culture is great, but I can't stand their fear of rain, it is just a lame excuse to do nothing. On Sunday it rained and so as such it meant that no one came to church! We had 8 members and 2 missionaries who were willing to endure the rain and come to church. I have never seen such a small sacrament meeting! But I did get to bless the sacrament which was good I hadn't done that either. I also got to sit around after church and help with Tithing which was interesting yet dull.
Thursday evening I finally got picked up from sav, I was still very wet and cold but oh well. I got to meet my new companion and head back to Negril! E. Hillam is a veteran missionary. Less than 3 months to go before he heads home. He is from Washington, just as E. Stevens was, and he is great! He has been Zone leader for a very long time, longest out of any missionary in Jamaica, one year, and as such he knows every rule and regulation to exactness. It is really nice, he really knows his gospel to. I think the best thing I have learned from him so far was to bring enthusiasm into the lessons. To Often the missionaries are enthusiastic for the work that they are doing and for their investigators but have a hard time helping the investigators feel the same way. He is good at that and I have begun applying it to my teaching. It is interesting to go out
everyday. I am the master of Negril in terms of the town but E. Hillam knows how to teach much better than I do. But during this next transfer I hope to learn a lot from him and his ability to teach.
I have been eating better, my companion believes in riding home everyday for lunch which saves us money. We don't eat out much so I get a lot more variety which is nice! Last night I had my first piece of Jerk Chicken which was amazing! From what he says it sounds like that is the most popular food in Jamaica it is just hard to get in Negril, the tourist area sort of kills it for some strange reason. In the City you can get it everywhere and for really cheap. It was very good, I liked it a bunch and will have to eat it again! Tastes like grilled chicken that is super spicy. Very good.
On Sunday it was the Mitchells sons 2nd birthday so we had a party at church. The 10 people that were there had an ice cream and cake party after church was over. It was really good. I had a ton of ice cream and a good amount of cake. The cake was good but sis Mitchell had one of those cakes with like an inch of the nasty frosting all around it. Unfortunately I ended up with 2 corner pieces which meant I got extra extra frosting.
This week I have been spending all my free time reading Jesus the Christ. That truly is an amazing book. I would have never received so many insights into the New Testament as James E Talmage manages to get. I will hopefully finish it this week and then I think I will start on the Book of Mormon again. I had to purchase a new Preach my Gospel, mine just keeps getting wetter and wetter and is crumbling apart. But it was cheap, only like $3.00
This week we have been teaching this lady named Sis. Hylton. She is very good! Has had a rough life and was in need of something that would bring her peace in her life. She had had an especially hard week. But things are calming down with her and the missionaries arrived just in time. We have been helping her with a bunch of yard work that she needed help with and been teaching her after words. She is doing well. She has been reading everything we leave her and more. She read the first part of the Book of Mormon, all the testimonies, introduction, 1st Nephi. We are hopeful that she will gain a good testimony. Just needs to pray to know for sure!
I have enjoyed this last week, yesterday (Monday) we didn't get a preparation day due to a holiday so that was a bummer but oh well still got to it today! We didn't have the best success yesterday, all our appointments blew us out and we met a crazy old guy who was very raciest and wouldn't listen to our message because the little pamphlet that the missionaries give out has a picture of Christ on it and Christ is white in the picture. It was annoying, he had a bit to much pride.
Well time is running short, hopefully this has been of interest! I left my notebook at home so I forgot what I had wanted to include in my email. I have just been writing down whatever comes to mind. I am doing well and enjoying my New companion. Hopefully we begin to see some good success in Negril, it needs it badly! The branch could use something exciting to happen, maybe it will spark their interest in Missionary work again!
Well I hope that the last week of school goes great and I hope that you have a great day! Thanks for that story Laura, I liked it a lot!
I love you all and look forward to next week!
Elder B. Kent Talbert